Bruno Sluydts

Bruno Sluydts: 'La fin des certitudes' is the title of Ilya Prigogine's latest book. It was also the title Bruno Sluydts used for his exhibition in 1999 in De Zwarte Panter, Antwerp. The title refers to the link that Sluydts makes between a new way of thinking in science, which he refers to in his art. After several periods in the evolution of his own style, from a kind of neo-expressionism, to postmodernism, with reference to mythological themes, the final breaking point grew out of science. After reading some of the new chaos theories, Sluydts came up with the idea to try out these theories in a plastic way. So the theory was made practical. He started from the fractals. The term 'fractal' was Benoit Mandelbrot's idea. He got it from the Latin word 'frangere', which means 'to break'. Sluydts began to divide his painting into fragments, 'fractals'. He referenced the theory by using iterations, Mandelbrotsets, and others. When chaos theory was swallowed up by the more universal theory of 'complex systems', his work became more austere and linked to the subconscious. Both the brain and the universe are both complex systems. He called his first discourse on complex systems 'self-organising', in the same way that unstable dynamical systems organise themselves. He transferred the interaction in nature to painting, which led to titles such as 'Correlation Man' and 'Free Order'. The result is a colorful and powerful mix of emotions, science, thoughts and life. In fact, the evolution of his work itself functions as a complex system. It harks back to his neo-expressionist works, it refers to politics, science and love, and it tries to create a new plastic language. Sluydts, however, places less emphasis on the paintings than on the theory behind them.